The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-18
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When | wrote about Sidon in my last
did not know that she was going to
get mad about my saying something
about Greenwood, also, but she did.
Then got mad, too, and said / would
never write anything more about her as
long as | lived-I mean as she lived and
| meant it, too. She then said she was
not mad with me, but with "some other
| folks" So | buried the hatchet. But
she didn't. She straightway notified q
property owner there if be did not drain
| his fisn pond, (Which in her classic
phraseology she denominated mud
| hole") she would do it for him at his
expense. The aforesaid gentleman re-
piled that they had willingly and know
| ingly settled around his fish pond and
that they had Just as well turn the va
zoo River up stream at his expense. His
suggestion was not adopted, for all the
neighbors wanted the river just as it is,
as it had run that way so long. After a
little war like the settlers on the reser-
yation are having, the pond was drained
and the situation courteously accepted
by the owner, who really had no OBJ
| lection to the draining of the pond. He
is the last man in Lefore county who
would allow anything of his to become
nuisance to his neighbors. But the
| fact that Sidon called it a mud hole"
was too trying to one whose taste In
nomenclature is undisputed-
When | wrote of Sidon before, wished
to say something of this pond, but de-
sisted, not knowing what to call 1t.
have found it good policy when you
don't know exactly what thing IS, not
to talk about it, and / have also found
that people do not like anything they
have called ugly names. Now IN point
of taste and nicety Sidon is just as ac-
cute as possible. That is her pond (the
owner lives In GreenwOod) and she can
call it ''mud-hole" if she wants to,
but | will not take that liberty. 1t was
muddy, too small for a lake and never
had any fish, did not know the name
of it, so | did mt call it at all. If | had
Sidon would surely have brought libel
against that respectable old lady, TUE
| CLARION, who has always been so free
from slanderous charges. Then | should
have been so mortiied--for could here
prove nothing-the combined evidence
of the owner, the town and the craw-
fishing children would have all been IN
the plaintiffs favor But now that the
civil war is over, and the fish pond Is
growing up in grass, and / know what
to call it, | will say that nothing else
spoiled one of the prettiest of the river
towns of the beautiful IaZoo Valley
] see we have to have another fuss with
our Black Hawk neighbor, and other
piny-woods folks, and Jackson, too
about that word valley" This is a
valley, and not "Swamp and Bot
tom"
The hillites and rosin-heels think be
cause they have some creeks and
branches that change bottoms every bie
rain, that are in the same fix. 1her
let them get dictionary and memorlze
the difference between a valley and {
swamp and they will be the cleverest
people in the world, for as it is, even IL
their ignorance on this important point
they are right good folks.
| Well, while the railroads and the gov
ernment were having monkey and
a parrot time over the ''long and short
hawl," DIR. Ward was using up Prof
Tillett, and Bill Arp was being much
obliged to him Ito the Doctor, l mean
and not the Professor). The effort wa
certainly mastery one, and made
everybody feel good. How DIR. Ware
got so much together in so little space
and in so little time, has been the won
der of the literary world. There i
more history in those two or three col
umns than has been gathered in the
same amount of space by any historian
from Herodotus to Jefferson Davis
The lurking resentment in the Southern
heart found expression when the key
note was struck; and as the master
hand swept over the chordage "each re
sponsive note brought back a thrill un
til the great heart of the South becam,
J one vast tissue of harmonious vibra
tions. Though doubtless he held thu
} opinion of many of his own peculia
race, Prof. Tillett wove for himself the
ugly winding-sheet in which DIR. Ware
wrapped him, ere he buried him in q
grave of facts, "that knows no resur
rection."
For once all the South was solid. Th'
great, big, independent, self-made man
forgot, for the time-being, the '|hatter
ing junction" that he so often proud.
"iaid to his soul" and acknowledged b.
had a pedigree-and that it was goot
one. He used to scoff the idea. ID
imagined he had no start in the great
desolate world-he had done all him
self-by himself-unaided and alone
through dark trials and heart-aches
This same self-made man read Dr
] Wards article, forgot his boasts ant
thought good blood was a great help
and fully realized that after all he wa
not so self-made. Man may cultivate
use or misuse the gifts that are his, bu
for their actual possession he is no mor'
!; responsible than he is for the race T.
which he belongs.
! | have heard many a man say that b
! did not believe in blood-there wa
nothing in it. / have seen that sam
man give thrice the value of an ordinar
i animal, for blooded horse, COW, an
J even dog. / knew one who would no
own COW that had not been registered
he even would go so far as to say b
could not belong to certain church bt
; cause it had no pedigree, yet he got IL
dignant with his sister because she wa
proud of her ancestry and would pr'
: serve the family tree. The old saying
, of "blood will tell" and ''you can nc
. get blood out of a turnip," have MOI
truth in them. than a casual observer {
human nature would be apt to SUI
! pose.
However, there is no danger of tn
CLARION and myself giving offense b
the foregoing conclusions, for all kno
we Southern folks are from "thre
. brothers and their wives" who landed I
!. jamestown, Virginia. These thre
= brothers, of course, in different familie
r had different names. The eldest broths
: remained in Virginia, being too old
f try newer country; the next wei
: West, and the third, South. From OF
E of the three we all came, hence we al
: the best of blood. These brothers use
; to come over in the Mayhower and Ian
e at Plymouth Rock. But they don
! come that way now. Haven't heard ,
|. them taking passage this way for mo-
Il than twenty years. In this way mo
= of us are connected with the earls ar
: lords, dukes and counts, and even Il
4 royal families of the old world. Fac
r. family has, moreover, a large fortHI
n awaiting the proofs in Europe. Most
= it, for safe keeping, is in the Bank
n England, though the Rothchilds ofts
q borrow it and pay rs handsome pre-
ent for its use. There is firm of la'
yers in New York, who make a special
of attending to our European interes
when we pay them well and furnish t
le necessary proof.
= One of our numerous family had almo
got his, when he read the March CentsH
" He is thrown back twenty years in t
pursuit of the millions to which he
to the rigntful heir, for he refuses po
lively to let his ancestral brother land
ia PIvmouth Rock. He SAYS he wou